Defined by the Soul
For many generations humans judged each other mostly by the physical: their race and their gender. For many centuries even religion was mainly divided among nationalities (Europeans were Christian/Catholic, Arabs were Islamic, Indians were Hindu, etc). What type of body you were born with (male, female, black, white, etc) would have a huge impact on what your future would look like. It’s hard to believe that less than 100 years ago women still couldn’t vote in America.
But in recent generations there has been a huge movement trying to shift people from being defined by their body to being defined by their soul. The soul is a person’s mind, will, and emotions. For a long time society and different religions boxed in the soul and made clear what was taboo and what was allowed. But then with the hippies came a “free love” movement and those taboos began to break apart. People became free to do what they wanted. The music industry pushed this strongly and was a huge influence for the hippy generation. Society and religion had put oppressive bounds on people and there were some ties that definitely needed to be broken (racism, rigidity with rules, condemnation of creativity/new things), but in the process a whole new can of worms was opened. The freedom of expression movement got so strong that in the 1970’s and 1980’s there were a number of “Pro-Pedophile” groups that were formed and even grew in America and in different countries in Europe. These groups weren’t celebrated by the majority, but they grew followings before having to go underground in the 1990’s.
Choosing to be defined by your soul is exactly what Satan wants (see the sermon below). Satan’s name means “The Accuser.” If you have prideful thoughts, Satan will try and label you as “Arrogant.” For a person that struggles with lust, Satan will try and label as “Dirty” or an “Addict.” He tries to define you by your thoughts, even if they are fleeting and changing.
Christians must never fall into Satan’s traps. Christians are called to be defined by God’s Spirit, not by our soul or by our body. The flesh counts for nothing. Our soul (mind, will, emotions) is meant to be submitted to His Spirit. We’re called to be defined by what God calls us, not by what our mind thinks about. The more we meditate on the desires of our body and soul, the more worldly we become (Romans 7). The more we meditate on the Spirit and God’s Truth, the more free we become (Romans 8). This is what separates Christians from the world. If you can’t believe that God’s Spirit can transform you, then you haven’t had a full revelation of the Gospel.
Christians can’t blame the world for wanting to define themselves by their souls. Apart from God the human is only made up of body and soul. Defining people by their body led to slavery and oppression throughout history. The movement of being defined by one’s soul is much more appealing than that and frees people to do what they really want. But in the end, if you believe in a heaven and a hell and God and Satan, then you know that no one can serve two masters. Either we are serving God, or we are serving the devil. The devil prefers for us to think that we are just serving ourselves when we submit to our souls’ desires, and he has been pulling that trick since Adam and Eve.
Quick addendum to this sermon… not all music is evil. It’s the spirit behind the music that is important (please read this post for more details: https://www.comequicklyministries.org/blog/spirit-music/).
Also, here is a link to a document of identities in Christ: https://www.comequicklyministries.org/resources/Identities%20in%20Christ.pdf. These identities are who you truly are in Christ! (In case that link fails, you can find the pdf here: https://www.comequicklyministries.org/sermons/resources/).
